In the past, weeding of agricultural crops has generally been a very inefficient process. Generally weeding has been performed individually with farm laborers walking in the field and either manually or chemically attempting to control the weeds. For one wishing to chemically control the weeds, the laborer must carry a source of chemical, generally in the form of a pressurized tank, with him. Such heavy and unwieldy apparatus tends to tire the worker as well as limiting his mobility from his path. The laborer also must take care where he steps in order not to damage any of the corp which is growing. Finally such manual methods are often quite slow, especially when weed growth is light and the laborer is limited by the speed at which he can walk.
Various devices such as those showing U.S. Pat. Nos. 775,456, 823,034, 1,504,846, 2,267,234, 2,524,181 and 2,861,703 have been proposed for carrying workers through the field in order to harvest crops. In general, these devices carry the worker in horizontal position beneath laterally disposed wings which extend outwardly perpendicular to the direction of travel of the machine. Such devices are decidedly unsuited for weed control for several reasons. First, the perpendicular disposition of the lateral structures provides little chance for the worker to view a plant or row of plants from various angles so as to have a better view of possible weeds. Also, all the prior devices unduly restrain and restrict the freedom of movement of the worker which is highly desirable on weed control. The aforesaid harvesting devices limit the worker's access to one row.
It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a device which will serve to carry personnel through a field for weed control and which allows optimum viewing of the plants and rows to be weeded and which allows the worker the most freedom of movement in order to effect the weed control. It is also an object of this invention to provide a device which is light in weight, easily and inexpensively manufactured, and which is easily adopted to and maneuvered by various conventional tractors.